Inscriptions, Synagogues and Rabbis in Late Antique Palestine

2011 ◽  
Vol 42 (2) ◽  
pp. 253-277
Author(s):  
Fergus Millar
Keyword(s):  
Social Context ◽  
Late Antiquity ◽  
Rabbinic Literature ◽  
Late Antique ◽  
Archaeological Evidence ◽  
Medieval Manuscripts ◽  
Rabbinic Judaism ◽  
Written Form ◽  
Epigraphic Evidence ◽  
A Current

AbstractThe numerous works of “rabbinic” literature composed in Palestine in Late Antiquity, all of which are preserved only in medieval manuscripts, offer immense possibilities for the historian, but also present extremely perplexing problems. What are their dates, and when did each come to be expressed in a consistent written form? If we cannot be sure about the attribution of sayings to individual named rabbis, how can we relate the material to any intelligible period or social context? In this situation, it is natural and right to turn to contemporary evidence, archaeological, iconographic and epigraphic. The primary archaeological evidence is provided by the large (and increasing) number of excavated synagogues. But, it has been argued, rabbinic texts are not centrally concerned with synagogues or the congregations which met in them. So perhaps “rabbinic Judaism” and “synagogal Judaism” are two separate systems. Alternatively, the epigraphic evidence attests individuals who are given the title “rabbi,” and these inscriptions, on stone or mosaic, include some which derive from synagogues. But perhaps “rabbi,” in this context, was merely a current honorific term, and these are not the “real” rabbis of the texts? It will be argued that this distinction is gratuitous, and that in any case the largest and most important synagogue-inscription, that from Rehov, both is “rabbinic” in itself and mentions rabbis as religious experts.

The Comparative Study of “Scholasticism” in Late Antique Mesopotamia: Rabbis and East Syrians

AJS Review ◽  
2010 ◽  
Vol 34 (1) ◽  
pp. 91-113 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adam H. Becker
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
Comparative Study ◽  
Middle Ages ◽  
Late Antiquity ◽  
Great Distance ◽  
Late Antique ◽  
Rabbinic Judaism ◽  
Early Christian ◽  
Transmission Of Knowledge ◽  
History Of

Now is an appropriate time to reconsider the historiographical benefit that a comparative study of the East Syrian (“Nestorian”) schools and the Babylonian rabbinic academies may offer. This is attributable both to the recent, rapid increase in scholarship on Jewish–Christian relations in the Roman Empire and late antiquity more broadly, and to the return by some scholars of rabbinic Judaism to the issues of a scholarly exchange of the late 1970s and early 1980s about the nature of rabbinic academic institutionalization. Furthermore, over the past twenty years, scholars of classics, Greek and Roman history, and late antiquity have significantly added to the bibliography on the transmission of knowledge—in lay person's terms, education—in the Greco-Roman and early Christian worlds. Schools continue to be an intense topic of conversation, and my own recent work on the School of Nisibis and the East Syrian schools in general suggests that the transformations and innovations of late antiquity also occurred in the Sasanian Empire, at a great distance from the centers of classical learning, such as Athens, Alexandria, and Antioch. The recently reexamined East Syrian sources may help push the conversation about rabbinic academic institutionalization forward. However, the significance of this issue is not simply attributable to its bearing on the social and institutional history of rabbinic institutions. Such inquiry may also reflect on how we understand the Babylonian Talmud and on the difficult redaction history of its constituent parts. Furthermore, I hope that the discussion offered herein will contribute to the ongoing analysis of the late antique creation and formalization of cultures of learning, which were transmitted, in turn, into the Eastern (i.e., Islamic and “Oriental” Christian and Jewish) and Western Middle Ages within their corresponding communities.

Let Them Eat Fish: Food for the Poor in Early Rabbinic Judaism

2014 ◽  
Vol 45 (2) ◽  
pp. 250-270
Author(s):  
Gregg E. Gardner
Keyword(s):  
Late Antiquity ◽  
Late Antique ◽  
Fish Food ◽  
Rabbinic Judaism ◽  
The Poor ◽  
Recent Scholarship ◽  
Tiered System ◽  
Social Separation ◽  
Material Requirements

Abstract Recent scholarship has shown how investigations into food and poverty contribute to our understanding of late-antique Judaism and Christianity. These areas of inquiry overlap in the study of charity, as providing food was the preeminent way to support the poor. What foods and foodways do the earliest texts of rabbinic Judaism prescribe for the poor? This article examines Tannaitic discussions of the foods that should be given as charity, reading these texts within their literary and historical contexts. I find that they prescribe a two-tiered system whereby foods for the week aim to meet the poor’s biological needs, while those for the Sabbath fulfill religious requirements. These rabbinic instructions, however, also reinforce social separation and deepen the poor’s sense of exclusion. This article contributes to scholarship on poverty and charity in late antiquity, the use of food in the construction of rabbinic identity, and the tensions that arise from establishing material requirements for religious observances.

scholarly journals From the Tombs into the City: Grave Robbing and the Reuse of Funerary Spolia in Late Antique Italy

2019 ◽  
Vol 30 ◽  
pp. 115-137
Author(s):  
Cristina Murer
Keyword(s):  
Social Practice ◽  
Late Antiquity ◽  
Sixth Century ◽  
Late Antique ◽  
Archaeological Evidence ◽  
Public And Private ◽  
The Third ◽  
Political Transformations ◽  
The Social ◽  
The City

Archaeological evidence demonstrates that funerary spoil (e.g. sarcophagus lids, funerary altars, epitaphs, reliefs, and statues) were frequently reused to decorate the interiors of public and private buildings from the third to the sixth century. Therefore, the marble revetments of high imperial tombs must have been spoliated. Imperial edicts, which tried to stamp part the overly common practice of tomb plundering, confirm that the social practice of tomb plundering must have been far more frequent in late antiquity than in previous periods. This paper discusses the reuse of funerary spoil in privet and public buildings from Latium and Campania and contextualizes them by examining legal sources addressing tomb violation. Furthermore, this study considers the extent to which the social practice of tomb plundering and the reuse of funerary material in late antiquity can be connected with larger urbanist, sociohistorical, and political transformations of Italian cityscapes from the third to the sixth century.

scholarly journals TO THE QUESTION OF SPACE ORGANIZATION OF BOOK ILLUMINATION OF LATE ANTIQUITY AND EARLY MIDDLE AGES (IV – VII CENTURY)

2021 ◽  
Vol 17 (4) ◽  
pp. 29-48
Author(s):  
Mikhail S. Bankov
Keyword(s):  
Middle Ages ◽  
Late Antiquity ◽  
Spatial Organization ◽  
Continuous Process ◽  
Late Antique ◽  
Early Medieval ◽  
Early Middle Ages ◽  
Medieval Manuscripts ◽  
Space Organization ◽  
Miniature Painting

The article focuses on peculiarities of spatial organization of book miniature paintings of late antique and early medieval manuscripts (IV – VII centuries). The author analyses the problem of conveying illusion of depth in illustration in context of gradual transmission from roll to codex, which took place in antique book culture between the II and the V centuries. By analyzing survived fragments of illuminated rolls author displays characteristic features of their spatial organization and observes influence which had tradition of roll illustration on the development of codex. Nevertheless, precisely the miniatures of the codices that have come down to our time are in focus of the author’s attention. The stages of development of the text page, the peculiarities of interaction of text and images in codices are compared with the principles of space organization in miniatures. The article makes an attempt, relying on the monuments that have survived to our time, to consider the development of spatial constructions in the period of late Antiquity and early Middle Ages as a continuous process of evolution of the language of book painting. The author assumes that the development of spatial constructions in miniature painting does not imply sharp breaks or regression. Each new stage of the evolution arises from the previous one and makes it possible to expand the arsenal of artistic means which are necessary for solving artistic problems of the time. In accordance with this approach, the article concentrates not only on compositions in which a spatial illusion is created, but also miniatures that are in character more plane. As a result, the author reveals the main types of spatial constructions, considering all surviving monuments of miniature painting of that time. For each type of space organization, the author identifies the basic principles and artistic techniques that allow the artist to convey a sense of depth on the plane of page. The author pays special attention to the comparison of illusionistic tendencies in the late antique book miniature and “reverse perspective”, features of which are present in the monuments of the era. The author casts doubt on the need for a sharp contrast between these two approaches to space organization in the monuments of book miniatures of the era. He analyzes the reasons for the appearance of such features of space organization in miniature paintings of late antique and early medieval manuscripts, which are so important for the formation of artistic language of medieval book illumination.

scholarly journals Statue habit and statue culture in Late Antique Rome

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-35
Author(s):  
Carlos Machado
Keyword(s):  
Late Antiquity ◽  
Final Section ◽  
Late Antique ◽  
Free Standing ◽  
Epigraphic Evidence ◽  
The City ◽  
Scholarly Attention

Abstract The statue habit was a defining characteristic of Classical cities, and its demise in Late Antiquity has recently attracted scholarly attention. This article analyzes this process in the city of Rome, charting the decline and abandonment of the practice of setting up free-standing statues between the end of the 3rd c. and the mid 7th c. CE. Focusing on the epigraphic evidence for new dedications, it discusses the nature of the habit in terms of its differences from and continuities with earlier periods. The quantitative evolution of the habit suggests that its end was associated with deeper transformations. The final section examines the broader significance of setting up statues in Late Antique Rome, arguing that the decline of the statue habit must be understood in the context of a new statue culture that saw statue dedications in an antiquarian light, rather than as part of an organic honorific language.

Introduction

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Rosenberg
Keyword(s):  
Late Antiquity ◽  
Sexual Practices ◽  
Late Antique ◽  
Methodological Issues ◽  
Women's Bodies ◽  
Rabbinic Judaism ◽  
Cultural Ideals

Definitions for and tests designed to demonstrate female virginity have as much to do with cultural ideals of masculinity as they do with concerns about sexual practices or women’s bodies. A wealth of scholarship in recent years on masculinity in late antiquity generally and Rabbinic Judaism specifically is thus helpful in framing this study. Unlike earlier studies, however, attention to chronological and geographical variety within late antique Judaism helps sharpen our understanding of masculinity in this work. The introduction concludes with brief discussions about the problem with the terms “virgin” and “hymen,” and about methodological issues concerning working with edited Rabbinic texts. An outline of the book’s contents follows.

Scholia

Classics ◽  
2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lara Pagani
Keyword(s):  
Late Antiquity ◽  
Short Note ◽  
Literary Work ◽  
Literary Text ◽  
Strict Sense ◽  
Late Antique ◽  
Medieval Manuscripts ◽  
Different Origins ◽  
Different Sources

The word σχόλιον (“scholion,” Lat. scholium), a diminutive of σχολή, means originally “short note” or “brief explanation.” Today “scholia” designates, in a technical meaning, the amalgam of various comments scattered in the margins of medieval manuscripts of ancient literary works. Their contents descend ultimately from ancient commentaries, treatises, lexica, glossaries, and other scholarly products, via a long process of excerpting, insertion, and recombination of materials of different origins. The scholiastic corpora represent thus the outcome of a compilation of heterogeneous sources, designed to be systematically arranged in the margin of the manuscript, alongside the literary work commented upon, in order to both supply a multifaceted reading aid and preserve the ancient learned heritage. A significant debate has arisen about the period when the birth of the scholiography should be dated, whether in late antiquity or in the early Byzantine age. We possess a substantial amount of Greek scholiastic corpora, especially to a certain number of poets of the Archaic and Classical ages and, to a progressively lesser extent, to the most prominent of the Hellenistic poets; to some didascalic poets; and to prose-writers such as historians, rhetoricians, philosophers. The most plentiful and remarkable of the Greek scholiastic corpora is represented by the scholia to the Homeric poems, which probably convey the richest legacy of the philological and exegetical activity of the Hellenistic scholars. In the Latin field, Late Antique MSS bearing exegetical excerpta in their margins do survive, and we can sometime grasp a long-term process of “circular” tradition: from separate commentaries to the scholia, compiled from different sources and accompanying the literary text; from these ones again to the compilation of autonomous and organic commentaries; and from the last products in turn to a new extraction of materials designed for marginal annotation. The whole of this phenomenon is often called “scholiography,” in the wide meaning of “exegetical annotations” (sometimes applied also to the authorial work of a specific grammarian), though some scholars recognize the origin of scholiography (in the strict sense) to the Latin classical authors between the 8th and the 9th centuries ce. The most prominent remains of Latin scholiastic literature are the ancient commentaries to Virgil, Terence, and Horace, but interesting material related to Cicero, Ovid, Germanicus, Lucan, Statius, Persius, and Juvenal also survives.

Social Justice in Rabbinic Judaism

2019 ◽  
pp. 536-552
Author(s):  
Tzvi Novick
Keyword(s):  
Social Justice ◽  
Late Antiquity ◽  
Final Section ◽  
Rabbinic Literature ◽  
Rabbinic Judaism ◽  
The Poor ◽  
Methodological Challenges ◽  
Law And Ethics

The category of social justice can be understood to encompass both protection of the vulnerable from abuse and support for the poor (charity). The chapter surveys aspects of social justice, conceived in these broad terms, in the classical rabbinic corpus (c. second to sixth centuriesce). After reviewing methodological challenges, important contributions, and scholarly lacunae, the chapter turns to the conceptualization of charity in rabbinic literature, and the light that rabbinic literature sheds on charity practices in Jewish late antiquity. The final section examines rabbinic interpretation of biblical verses mandating protection of the vulnerable from abuse, with particular attention to the liminal status of such provisions between law and ethics.

The Early Christian Archaeology of the Balkans

2019 ◽  
pp. 536-556
Author(s):  
William Bowden
Keyword(s):  
Material Culture ◽  
Late Antiquity ◽  
Fourth Century ◽  
Late Antique ◽  
Archaeological Evidence ◽  
Rural Landscapes ◽  
The Balkans ◽  
Early Christian ◽  
Balkan Region ◽  
New Religion

Textual sources attest to the early spread of Christianity across the Balkan region, and archaeological evidence demonstrates how the new religion transformed the built environment and material culture of the area in Late Antiquity, although dating and analysis of these buildings have tended to focus on stylistic and typological approaches. Prior to the late fourth century archaeological evidence of Christianity is mainly found in funerary contexts, but in the fifth and sixth centuries the urban and rural landscapes were transformed by the construction of Christian architecture, including the monumentalization of martyrs’ graves at towns such as Salona and the creation of major episcopal centers at provincial capitals such as Stobi and Nicopolis. These churches were funded by multiple individuals, evidenced by inscriptions that reference ecclesiastical and lay donors of both sexes. The location and design of many of the churches also reflect the increasingly militarized nature of the Late Antique Balkans.

Excommunication in Jewish Babylonia: ComparingBavli Mo‘ed Qaṭan14b–17b and the Aramaic Bowl Spells in a Sasanian Context

2015 ◽  
Vol 108 (4) ◽  
pp. 552-578
Author(s):  
Jason Sion Mokhtarian
Keyword(s):  
Late Antiquity ◽  
Salient Feature ◽  
Second Temple ◽  
Rabbinic Literature ◽  
Late Antique ◽  
Jewish Society ◽  
Roman Palestine ◽  
Name Of God

According to rabbinic literature of late antiquity, a Jew could be excommunicated or banished from the community for around twenty-four spiritual and social violations. The Talmuds’ list of sins that necessitated the separation of a transgressor includes, for instance, profaning the name of God, selling forbidden meat, insulting one's master, and obstructing justice. Once condemned, the sinner was physically isolated from other people and prohibited from the same actions that a mourner was, such as cutting one's hair or wearing phylacteries. After the sinner repented or a certain amount of time passed, the ban was then lifted, typically by the master who had initiated it. Indeed, the master-disciple relationship is often at the center of banning and cursing in rabbinic literature. Although the rabbinic concept of excommunication draws from earlier biblical and Second Temple precedents, such as the book of Ezra, it is in many ways a late antique innovation featuring prominently in Babylonia. The reason that bans and excommunication emerge as a salient feature of Jewish society in this period is related to the rabbis’ historical contexts within Roman Palestine and Sasanian Babylonia. As I show in this article, exegesis and history both played a role in the formation of the talmudic laws of banishment.

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